


Together

by orphan_account



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Bisexuality, Black Romance, Drama, F/F, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Infidelity, Non-Graphic Violence, Post-Sburb, Red Romance, Regret, Relationship(s), Responsibility
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-17
Updated: 2011-04-27
Packaged: 2017-10-18 06:41:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 19,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/186080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Together. The word makes her smile, ever so slightly, as she turns it over in her mind. After their struggles, their failures, their successes, after the death of two races... it was the least they deserved.</i></p><p>Eight and a half years after the end of Sburb, the kids and surviving trolls are eking out a living together. Marked explicit for scenes of erotic intimacy (i.e. overblown porn) in Chapter 1 and Chapter 3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Red

**Author's Note:**

> I've made some changes, primarily to the first chapter. The changes in the other chapters are primarily wording and stylistic issues and I think I've fixed most of them.
> 
> I've rewritten the opener for Chapter 1 and fixed some stylistic issues in the rest of the chapter as well. Hopefully it reads better.
> 
> (It doesn't but I'm through fucking with it. It's beyond the point of salvaging, I think. Sorry.)

_Together._ The word makes her smile, ever so slightly, as she turns it over in her mind. After their struggles, their failures, their successes, after the death of two races... it was the least they deserved. Together, in a new universe, on a new world, simply surviving. That’s all the trolls could do. The humans would one day thrive, perhaps. Their descendants could populate this world and conquer it. One day they could tell stories of their ancestors and the weird gray aliens that came with them but did not survive.

Alternia and the Trolls would be forgotten and eventually so would Earth. How depressing. It’s better not to think about that, especially when there are far more interesting things to consider. The man next to her, for instance. Not that she can see him, of course. She’s been blind since childhood. Well, technically.

She inhales deliberately and slowly, through her nose, taking in the aroma of the colors that surround her: a bittersweet fragrance, like coffee with sugar, as well as pale cream that’s slowly but surely removing itself from the mixture. A strong whiff of smoky gunmetal swirls into a hazy image of a second troll: Karkat Vantas. Every inch of him is hard angles and thin, whipcord muscle. He’s the kind of troll who only ever seems to relax when she’s next to him. Terezi listens to her matesprit’s quiet breathing as he sleeps and revels in the warm coziness of the sopor slime. His thin frame radiates heat that Terezi is more than happy to siphon in such close quarters.

Her black lips pull apart into a shark's grin as she presses against Karkat’s back, earning a delirious mumble from him and a gooey popping from the thick substance. The gently sloping plane within the slimy, moist enclosure is pliable and slick, allowing little resistance as Terezi adjusts her position. The dimming light of the early evening slowly fades from the recuperacoon as Terezi lets her thoughts drift amidst the drowsy haze of sopor slime.

She’d had a crush on him for sweeps, ever since she met him through their mutual bipolar hacker friend. He’d thought her obsession with pseudo-reality combat games and justice was dumb and she’d felt the same way about his obsession with romantic comedies and troll psychology. They hit it off immediately. Their constant arguing and tiffs had made them inseparable; this bond had persisted into adolescence, when it had blossomed into something very, very flushed.

A memory floats up to fill her thoughts, a fuzzy haze of smells and tastes that roll together like smoke before slowly unfurling for her private enjoyment and distraction.

 

 

Wind screams across the dunes, threatening to summon a swirling tempest of biting grit. Terezi clenches her teeth and presses against Karkat as they stomp through the sand, earning an epithet and a half-hearted shove that she purposefully ignores. She is tired and annoyed, it's been a week already playing this stupid game, and this planet, this Land of Sand and Zephyr, _sucks_. The horrible grit fills her nostrils and makes her gag when the wind kicks it up and it smells and tastes as bad as it feels.

"Thank the fucking mother grub, I think I can finally see the fucking cave," a gravelly voice rattles, right next to her ear. Terezi exaggerates a sigh and feigns a pout as she wipes beads of sweat off her face with a sleeve.

"Making fun of the blind girl again, Karkat?" she teases, her face twisting into a facetious pout. "Rub it in some more, why don't-"

"I wasn't fucking making fun of you, I was just saying! You've been fucking complaining about how this fucking sand makes it hard to smell anything, so..." His voice betrays his frustration and Terezi can't help it. She cackles hideously and grins at his general direction, her teeth sharp, short, and gleaming mother-of-pearl in the relentless sun of this hellish desert planet.

"Relax, Karkles! You're so sensitive!" Surprisingly, he actually complies. She feels some of the tension flow out of his rail-thin frame, his shoulders slumping slightly. Even in the heat of this desert planet, she can feel the throbbing warmth of his body, as if he has an unquenchable fire inside that's consuming him whole. A twinge of pity sends a thrill through her mind.

"Stop calling me that," he sighs. There's no force behind it, only a defeated resignation to an unpleasant and unpreventable occurrence. Has he really given up that easily? Perhaps not. He hasn't been sleeping very much at all and has been far too obsessed with leading them to admit he's tired. He's been neglecting himself. He's been neglecting _her_ , as well, and she's going to put a stop to that.

"Okay, sorry. I'll stop." His silence is its own reward. Terezi is tempted to give his face a lick to taste his expression, but she thinks she knows what it is: surprise and suspicion, mixed together into the most intriguing blend of curves and shapes on the dull metallic tang of his skin. She pulls his arm around her waist, and he doesn't complain. Yes, it was all going according to plan.

It doesn't take the pair much longer to reach their destination: the entrance to an underground complex of stone, one that Tavros and Vriska had pointed out on their map of the planet. It was the best shelter available on the only direct route to the planet's exit gate, and Terezi had insisted they stop and rest. They had only been going a few hours, but she isn't about to let this chance to be alone go to waste.

The entrance is more of a gap than an entryway, a portal of black carved into a bare stone cliff that manages to avoid being buried under the dull-colored sand. The blackness is a relief to Terezi's sense of smell, overpowering the endless dusty scent of clogging sand as they stagger into the darkness. They stand there together for a few moments, letting their eyes adjust to the far more comfortable absence of sun and light. Terezi does her best to clear her sinuses and throat of the damned sand with snorts and coughs, with moderate success. Karkat just spits

The complex is made of hard, uninviting stone, but it is mercifully free of the sand that plagues every unprotected part of the planet. It is cool and dry, and the dark purple stone in the darkness smells _exactly_ like freshly leavened grubloaf. Complex pictographs and designs, remnants of unfamiliar puzzles, cover every part of the cavernous walls. They're hard to smell distinctly, but she cares little at the moment.

A wistful sigh escapes her throat as she slumps down next to the exhausted figure of Karkat. She removes her glasses and lays her head on his shoulder as the opaque carmine lenses vanish into her sylladex. The smell of grubloaf is a constant, making her remember her hunger and making her stomach rumble. She wishes she had some. She needs to get her mind off it. She needs a distraction. Karkat will do nicely.

"Ugh, finally, now we can relax without all that fucking sand," she mutters in full sincerity. She waits for a response. The only response given is relaxed, quiet breathing. A frown skitters across the dark lines of her lips as she turns her head and sniffs sharply. Colors swirl and coalesce, purples and grays and blacks, forming a hazy image of Karkat's rail-thin form, asleep less than a minute after sitting down. Terezi releases an exasperated sigh – _typical_. Still, she can work with this, even if it requires a slightly more direct approach.

She pats her hair, adjusts her shirt and raises herself onto her knees; a simple pivot, a scoot to the left with leg raised, and then she simply lets gravity handle the rest. Her rump lands squarely in his lap with a _pap_ , and her arms are sliding loosely around his shoulders as he awakes with a start. The subtle changes in his face play delicately on her nose as her shark's grin widens, her bright red eyes staring down at him, their gaze slightly off-center. "Hello, sleepyhorns!" she chirps with facetious cheerfulness, her face obscured by shadows. She shifts forward to press her chest against his, their faces dangerously close – so close she can feel his breath washing over her lips. It makes her heart flutter in anticipation.

Karkat just gawps, slack-jawed, for a brief moment before he fully processes the situation. His retort begins rather quietly, his breath a bit ragged. She can smell the nervousness, she can smell those beads of sweat forming and slowly evaporating in the dry air. "Terezi Pyrope, what in the grubloving fuck-" Her open-mouthed kiss shuts him up instantly and his body stiffens in what she hopes is pleasant shock.

Terezi hadn't quite expected this kind of sensory assault from their first kiss. The gunmetal gray of his skin fills her nostrils with a bouquet that's sultry and enticing in its scents: smoky and metallic, the two mixing to create a scent uniquely Karkat. It only takes a moment for him to return the kiss with breathtaking intensity; their breath mingles and their lips slide against the other, black on black, with the desperation and exuberance of newly kindled affection.

The scent of his skin mixes with the licorice sweetness of his lips, and the dull, dusty cotton candy of his tongue as it hesitantly, then boldly, slides along her lips, occasionally bumping into her own. The scents and tastes and the very _feel_ of his body's heat pressing against her own - hard angles against soft curves - makes her mind loiter on private, racy thoughts of what she'd just _love_ to do to him. Do _with_ him.

What shocks her the most – what sends thrills up her spine, and what makes her press into the kiss so eagerly – is that growing tinge of candy apple red, delicious and teasing, welling up underneath the skin of his face and driving her wild. _Oh my... never in my wildest dreams..._

It's been the last color she expects, really – she at least believed him to be somewhere on the hemospectrum, perhaps embarrassed by a low rung. But this? He isn't even part of it – no wonder he's been hiding behind anonymity! Oh, this is a valuable secret – this information is far too precious to rub in his face, especially since it might mean future access to it could be cut off.

Two sensations interrupt her train of thought. First: the touch of his hands against her hips, resting there gently. She allows it, approves of it, and smiles inwardly at his initiative. She'd never forgive him if he didn't at least try to return her affection with more than just a kiss. His touch feels pleasant and comforting, and her skin tingles slightly beneath the thin fabric of her clothing at the unfamiliar pressure placed there.

The second sensation makes her slowly pull away from the kiss, her breathing embarrassingly uneven and flustered. A distinct and unmistakable lump is pushing up at the fabric of her trousers from beneath and she could feel her own cheeks turning teal to match the fabulous candy red of her partner's. "Oh my," she says quietly as her eyebrows rise. "I... oh wow." The tease she has been planning, that was on the tip of her lips, fades before she can speak it in the face of unavoidable proof of her success.

This had been the whole point of the maneuver, yet now that Terezi is here, with Karkat, alone, pressed against him in ways more intimate than she was really prepared for... A wave of uncertainty crashes over her mind as she hesitates, her thighs tensing atop him. He says nothing, just stares at her face warily, breathing slowly and evenly, his fingertips occasionally twitching atop her hips. There is a slowly rising heat, distracting and tempting, that was starting to radiate out from between her legs, fighting against the uncertainty and worry. For the moment, it wins out.

"Do you like me?" she breathes against his lips, her eyes closed and her fingers pressing against the knots of muscle on his back. It was a rhetorical question – if he didn't like her, he wouldn't abide the current situation. She's well aware, of course. Yet... She hesitates, briefly, as another twinge of nervousness and uncertainty skitters across her thoughts. "You... you can touch me more, if you want."

He does so, after a moment's reluctance.

His hands slide slowly upwards, shaking just a bit, and her breath catches. They slide underneath her shirt, his warm fingers caressing the gray skin beneath. His touch is electric, and she can feel her heart thump in her chest as if she's just run a mile. The dull tips of his claws push against her ribs and keep moving up, slowly and steadily. The anticipation is killing her, that sublime sensation tugging her between want and fear, her mind racing with fragmentary thoughts, lost in a rush of emotion.

His hands reach their destination, and her breath catches, her heart skips a beat – she can feel him stop, she can smell the nervous sweat on his skin, and she commiserates. There is no obstacle between his fingers and her skin, and that _heat_ between her thighs is growing harder and harder to ignore, but it's being drowned in a flood of uncertainty and nervousness, of thoughts that say she just isn't _ready_ yet. His fingertips slide against the sensitive, dusky nubs atop her chest and she gasps loudly at the tingle of pleasant sensation, but in this moment, she knows – _not yet_. Her hands move from his back and grasp his own. She slowly pushes them back down.

Her voice is subdued and shaky, her expression one of wracked nerves. "Karkat, I... I can't." He doesn't reply, only accepts her decision. His hands remove themselves without complaint.

She slides off him slowly, blushing furiously – not out of shame, but nervousness and arousal. She presses against his side, her arms wrapping around his waist and her head lying on his shoulder, until she feels the heat slowly fade away, leaving a bit of dampness and warmth in its wake. She breathes a sigh of relief. Terezi relaxes as she notices the lump beneath the fabric of his own garment shrink. A subtle scent lingers in the air, colorless but unmistakable: a wispy residue of that brief, mutual intensity.

"Sorry."

The word slips from between her lips and hangs in the air between them. Time passes slowly, the only sounds being their breathing and heartbeats as they simply share warmth and the mutual presence of the other.

"Me too."

That's all he needs to say. She smiles and presses a kiss to the side of his neck as she nestles up closer – snuggles, even – against the hard angles of his tired body. It _feels_ right, being next to him, and she knows that even if she isn't ready yet, she will be eventually. It is all a matter of the right time, the right place. Yes, she'll be ready, but now... _now_ is too soon.

 

 

Terezi shifts herself around in the darkness of the recuperacoon, doing her best to prevent losing contact with the radiating heat of her matesprit. The sopor's fumes make her a little dizzy and relaxed, but she is distracted enough to ignore it, a familiar warmth rising between her legs as her hands set about to exploring her partner.

It's time to wake up, after all.

She begins with little, fluttering kisses to the edge of his ear as her hands curl around and slide along the flat plane of his belly. Fingertips press against gray skin, dimpling it as they slide, feeling the muscles tense and move as Karkat slowly stirs to wakefulness. He twists around in the close confines of the recuperacoon, bleary and obviously trying to organize his thoughts as her kisses move down to the side of his neck, her sharp teeth occasionally nipping. "Mmnh. Hey to you too, 'rez," he mumbles with a grin.

She returns his grin with gusto, pressing her curves against him as he twists around further. Her heart is beating rapidly and her breath is rasping in her throat as his hands return the favor, sliding around to her back and then downward, each grasping a fleshy cheek and squeezing playfully. "Karkles!" she laughs boisterously, her own hands pulling him flush against her. "Someone's feeling frisky tonight," she coos, voice breathy and quiet, before leaning forward to press her lips against his. He growls playfully into the kiss as he gains energy. He puts that tightly corded muscle to use for a good cause: he pushes her against the slick, warm wall of the enclosure and slides his hands down to the undersides of her thighs.

She squeals in delight as he raises her up and breaks the kiss, his breath hot and moist as he kisses the slick sopor off her neck. It tickles, and she can't help but giggle as she squirms. "Karkaaat!" she manages between giggles. "That _tickles_!" She slaps playfully at his back, her leg maneuvering to hook around his own.

He stops, for the moment, so he can press his lips against her chin. "You should've thought of that before you went and provoked the fearless Karkat Vantas," he replies in a low voice. Terezi can smell his grin, like white chocolate in the darkness of the recuperacoon. "It's been three and a half sweeps since we got together, you should know I'm fuckin' merciless by now." He underscores his assertion with a playful nip to her neck, making her gasp and then giggle once again.

"You know," she says as her hand draws around from his back to press a finger firmly against his chest. "I was just thinking about that time on Tavros' planet. Do you remember that?" Her finger slides down his chest, her claw digging into the firm gray skin and leaving a streak of quickly-fading scarlet. Karkat looks up ever so slightly, eyebrow raised. The scent of his amber eyes fills her nose like a splash of honey. _Delicious_.

"Yeah," He gives one of his rasping laughs and presses a light kiss on her jaw line. "That was a hell of a way to let someone know you were interested, 'rezi."

"Mmm. What's _interesting_ is that past tense! 'Were' interested!" Her hand slides down his belly and wraps its fingers around the warm length below. "As if I'm not still just as flushed for you as I was then." His response is a muttered expletive and a slight jerk of the hips. She keeps going, leaning towards him to whisper into his ear. "As if I don't still want you. As if just the _thought_ of you doesn't turn – me – on." Her fingers slowly draw up and down the flesh within their grasp, squeezing and releasing with those three words. The fumes of the sopor slime are making her light-headed, especially combined with her own increasing desire.

She _wants_ him, yet... it's no fun without the _tease_!

"But maybe I'm not really in the mood right now!" she coos and wriggles out of his grasp, laughing as he splutters in frustration. She slides herself out of the recuperacoon and hops onto the floor, the translucent viridian slime dripping off her bare gray skin as she laughs and scurries towards the wash room, Karkat struggling out of the recuperacoon behind her.

"Like hell you aren't!" he calls after her, pretending to be angry and failing miserably.

She loves it when he gets all flustered.

Terezi is the first to reach the ceramic enclosure that was standard in the human-designed homes, laughing raucously as she closes the curtain in Karkat's face. " _Jegus_ , Karkles, give a lady some privacy!" she teases as he pulls the curtain aside violently, quickly stepping into the tub and pushing her against the white-tiled wall. His body presses against hers, each slick head to toe with slime, as his lips press against hers with that characteristic ferocity. Her breath is ragged and her heart races as their tongues slide against the others' counterpart.

That sensory bouquet, so uniquely Karkat, washes over Terezi's senses once again. That mix of scent and taste, smoky, metallic, and sweet, with that ever-present subtle carmine glow beneath. He pulls out of the kiss briefly to murmur, "You know damn well I can tell when you want me." Of course she does. Even as he presses back into the kiss, his right arm reaching over to fumble with the valve to turn on a steaming spray of water, the scent of Terezi’s desire is _intense._

She pulls her lips away just enough to gasp in reply, " _Duh_ , Karkles." He takes the opportunity to move his kisses downward, wetly mouthing at her neck as his hands slide up the inward curves of her waist. Fingertips slip over her ribs and then forward to grasp a breast in each hand. His thumbs slide their smooth pads over the dark, fleshy nubs that cap the modest curves, making her sigh as tingles of sensation flutter along her nerves.

He does not linger; they slide away and down, never stopping their touches and caresses of her wet gray skin, stopping only when they reach the flesh of her buttocks: a cheek in each hand, his grasp hard and strong. As the water cascades over the pair, her leg hooks over his hip while the other supports herself on the smooth surface of the wet tub. His dusky lips press kiss after kiss on her jaw, neck and lips, his breath ragged and hot, the sensation of his affection making Terezi practically _quiver_. She returns it as much as she can, her own black lips kissing and sliding against his face and horns, her hands sliding around his shoulders and digging her claws into the firm skin of his back.

Sensation and sense swirl and mingle as Terezi's breath grows less even and steady, Karkat's hands gripping even tighter, lifting her _just enough_ , and she wants it. She wants him. She tells him so over the thumping of her heart and the ragged draws of breath and the pounding of the steaming water against gray skin, causing teal and carmine to tinge. She whispers her desire into his ear, tells him how _empty_ she feels, how she _needs_ him, and doesn't he want to make her happy?

He complies, of course.

He holds her up effortlessly, body pressed against hers, as his manhood slips inside her. Her breath catches as she feels him enter, her unseeing eyes sliding closed and her head tilting back against the tile. One word exits her lips – _yes –_ as her predator's grin spreads wide and toothy. She can feel every movement he makes, every shudder and every shift, she can feel the shape of his member inside her, and she _squeezes_ around him, lets him know of her appreciation. It earns a low, happy groan from him – and he moves – and she moans in return, breathy and adoring, her claws digging into his back hard enough to draw beads of vermilion blood.

Those pinpricks of pure red float into her nose and make her shiver. She wants more – _just a little more_ – and she draws her claws, sharp and thin, across ever so slightly, making Karkat shudder and grunt from the stinging pain. He lets her do it and she adores him for it, adores the color as its fragrance slides into her mind and covers it with a thin red haze. _Perfect._

He holds her still as his hips rock slowly back and forth, his face pressed against her neck as he breathes. Karkat's heat is like burning, like she can feel the fire inside him, feel that perfection, that _need_ , which defines him. She moans and gasps her encouragement, her toes curling into quivering tightness, her insides twisting into a knot of heat and want.

She says she'll kill him if he stops now.

He says he knows. He's not a stupid wriggler.

She laughs, joyous and throaty. Of course he isn't.

She can tell he's close, but she can't let him go that easily. She flutters and squeezes around his shaft, tightening when he slips out and relaxing when he slides in, whispering about how _good_ he makes her feel. His movements cause ripples of pleasure that slide up her spine and make her body tingle, every movement he makes just so _perfect_. Droplets of translucent teal drip into the tub, washing down the drain as they commingle with the splattering water. The smell of the droplets is the smell of her and she finds the fragrance so undeniably _erotic_.

The intensity of her senses grows side by side with her desire, everything swirling together into a murky haze of grays and whites and yellows and blacks and every color in between, mixing with the spikes of red and teal and the intense scent of sex. She tilts her head forward and slowly licks across her lover's face, _tasting_ the steely gray and the sweet candy carmine, the mix making her shiver in delight. He grunts and grits his teeth, his entire body tense in concentration. The falling water washes the salty sweat away, but she can still smell it, like a memory.

Terezi feels that familiar abyss approaching – that singular sensation that she craves, that she needs, and she's so _close_ – she clutches him tightly and moans lewdly into his ear. _Don't stop don't stop don't stop –_ and it happens, and she cries out in joy, her insides squeezing spasmodically around him as his hips' staccato rhythm grows more intense. She comes like fireworks, overwhelming sensation and color blossoming in her mind's eye. The water around their feet tinges teal as the fluid washes from her trembling thighs and drips from their coupling, an unmistakable signal of her ecstasy. She trembles around him, depending more on his grip to keep her up, expletives floating out of her throat in raspy gasps between loud, showy moans.

Just because it's real doesn't mean it isn't a performance.

That's part of the fun, after all.

She can feel him relax, though his movements never falter. As she comes down off that brief high and settles into the warm afterglow, that satisfaction and contentment settling into the very core of her, she simply enjoys the feeling of him still inside her. She whispers encouragement into his ear, mixed with light, teasing barbs, his response grunts and muttered, halfhearted rebukes until he finally lets himself release.

She can smell that fresh, diluting scarlet as he gasps into her neck and _comes_ , his hips jerking and his length throbbing inside her. It mixes with the remnants of teal-hued joy, forming a dusky purple with streaks of red and ribbons of teal that swirls hazily through her mind. It smells like fruit punch and that makes her grin – it's a unique perfume, so closely associated with their moments of intimacy.

He simply presses against her as he calms, his breathing hard against her neck as he buries his face there. It's not long – a few moments of quiet closeness, enjoying each other’s presence – before he begins kissing gently upward. Her head tilts back as she murmurs her appreciation. It ends with a kiss, his lips sliding against her own ever so briefly before he pulls away.

"Mmnh _damn_ , 'rezi-" A loud knocking on the door cuts his pleasured speech short: eight rapid knocks, insistent and demanding. They both grit their teeth and groan under their breath.

 _Serket_.

There are times when Terezi regrets that particular caliginous relationship, and this is one of them. Karkat grunts in annoyance and pulls away from his matesprit, a string of expletives – most of them some variant of _fuck_ – spilling from his lips as he slides out of her. Terezi sighs unhappily at the fresh vacancy, her groin throbbing slightly with familiar tenderness. He steps out of the tub and strides out of the room while he wraps a towel around his waist.

Moments later, he's bellowing angrily as the door opens.

Terezi simply stands underneath the water and gives herself a rinse as she mourns the death of a moment.

" _SERKET WHAT THE GRUBFISTING FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE?"_

 _"Shut up, Vantas, I'm not here to see yoooooooour scrawny ass! Man! So nasty! Put on some clothes! Where the fuck is Pyrope?"_

 _"NONE OF YOUR DAMNED BUSINESS, SERKET, NOW FUCK OFF."_

 _"Maaaaaaaan, whatever! HEY, PYROPE!"_ Terezi grits her teeth as she hears Vriska yell her name past Karkat, a seething and intriguing loathing welling up into her mind, taking advantage of her current state to assert itself on her arousal. _"Get your ass over-"_ She hears the door slam and Vriska's muffled yell of anger as she stomps off, and she's soon grinning ear to ear. _Nice work, Karkles._

She smells and hears Karkat as he re-enters, his face an uncharacteristic smirk. Terezi turns her grin in his approximate direction as she lets the water cascade over her gray skin. He pauses to take in the sight, and Terezi blows him a kiss. "I'll have to see her later," she mentions nonchalantly. Karkat grimaces and looks away.

"I don't need to fuckin' hear about it."

"Didn't know you were the jealous type, Vantas!" she teases as she rinses her hair. "You still find ways to surprise me."

He rolls his eyes. "Yeah. Jealous. Whatever. Like I want to hear about whatever fucked up crap you two little psycho girls get up to when you're alone. I mean, I can fuckin' guess, since you always come home with _blood stains_..."

Terezi laughs at that, loudly. She readies a barb and releases it. "Aww, Karkles, you _know_ I like _your_ blood the best! So delicious and candy red, and it's all mine. Of course, if you get _too_ jealous, there _are_ other sources..." She turns off the water and steps over to kiss his cheek. He grunts in response, obviously bristling. _Perfect_. She pats him on the rump, eliciting a glare that she pretends not to notice. "I'm sure you'll find a kismesis someday! After all, there's just so much to hate about you, isn't there?"

"Fuck you, Pyrope," he mutters.

"But you just did! A girl can only handle so much!" Terezi breaks into another bout of raucous laughter as she steps lightly out of the room.

Karkat just sighs and rubs his temples. "Fuck my life."


	2. Intrigue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is rated R for gratuitous F-bombs and ridiculous hatesmooching. Also for contrived, ridiculous plot.
> 
> Feel free to send me an email to tell me how much I fucked up.

Terezi inhales slowly and deeply as she steps through the door into a balmy, early-autumn evening. Hazy colors swirl and coalesce as she picks apart the complex bouquet, painting an imagined watercolor portrait of rapidly descending twilight on a sparse collection of homes and fields. The sun shimmers orange-pink on the horizon, the clouds above made of pink cotton-candy streaks and the sky a distant gradient of dark blues and purples. The forest in the distance is so deeply shadowed it resembles only blobs of tar. The sounds of nature are everywhere: the rustling of a bush as a rodent scurries to hide; the racket of lusty frogs and crickets; the throaty calls of birds whose names Terezi doesn’t care to know. Overpowering all of these, however, is the sound of newly established civilization: laughter and music, a mix of human voices and troll, down the well-worn path from her doorstep.

Terezi smiles.

A slight, cool breeze rustles through the gardens and brings with it the incredibly enticing aroma of food, piquing Terezi's appetite and curiosity. It smells like meat. Her stomach rumbles loudly and she obeys its gurgling plea. She can already taste the meat and it makes her mouth water. With her cane tap-tap-tapping the ground in front of her she strolls down the hill towards the flickering aroma of burnt oranges surrounded by dark chocolate silhouettes.

Behind her, three sounds alert her to the presence of another: a creak, a slam, and stomping feet. She pauses shortly in her stroll, and grasps Karkat's hand once he arrives. Their fingers intertwine tightly and she leans over to kiss him on the cheek.

"Escort the poor blind girl, would you, Karkles?" She resumes her stroll without waiting for his assent, leading him firmly by the hand to meet with the others.

 

The tune coming from the violin tucked under Rose's chin is unusually jaunty, as is Rose herself. She's grinning ear to ear as the bow slides wildly back and forth, her fingers dancing across the strings, releasing a rapid tune that makes Terezi's legs itch. She wants to _dance_. Jade is clapping her hands and stomping her feet in time to the song like a metronome, grinning just as widely as Rose.

The tune comes to a halt as Dave makes a quip unheard by Terezi; Rose is laughing now, the music temporarily forgotten. The glittering diamond-white skin of the troll next to her seems a perfect complement to the yellowed ivory of Rose's own. The troll is the first to notice Terezi and Karkat's arrival. She smiles and waves as she greets them with a voice that sounds eternally calm, practiced and precise. "Hello Terezi, hello Karkat. Nice of you to join us." The others greet the pair with a staccato chorus of heys and hellos.

"Hey everyone!" Terezi is feeling rather chipper this evening. "What's that smell?"

"Jade and Dave shot one of those deer-things earlier," John replies. "It's a pretty big one, too. Took all afternoon to cook it."

Rose makes a face at her brother and picks the song she was playing back up from the beginning. There's not a whole lot left on the large corpse laying on a tarp nearby, but she and Karkat are able to rip off large chunks to gnaw on before sitting next to each other on their customary wooden bench. John sits on the next bench over, and Terezi notes that he is, strangely enough, alone. There doesn't seem to be any sign that Vriska is nearby, and the concern on John's face is palpable. Terezi _has_ to ask.

So she leans over and does exactly that. "Where's Vriska?"

John shrugs helplessly. "Dunno. I've hardly seen her at all since last night. Do you think she's okay? I looked for her earlier but I couldn't find her."

"No idea," is all she says. John looks stricken, and she takes note of an exchange of glances between him, Rose and Kanaya. As she files that particular occurrence into the back of her mind for further investigation, Terezi turns her attention to more pressing concerns: namely, food and conversation. There are only a few hours of overlap between the humans' and trolls' schedules, but this conflict has its advantages. While the humans and Kanaya tend to the gardens and hunt the beasts that litter the surrounding wilderness during the day, the rest of the trolls protect their livelihoods and homes from the dangers of the night.

It takes only a couple hours for the fire to die down, leaving only glowing embers and cracking, burnt wood in its wake. In that time, Rose plays several songs on the violin.

"It's called fiddling," she explains when Karkat asks what the hell is wrong with her. "It's a traditional human form of uplifting rural dance music. I imagined it would be rather fitting for the occasion."

"IT'S A FITTING OCCASION FOR PIERCING MY AURICULAR SPONGE CLOTS WITH YOUR FUCKING KNITTING NEEDLES, LALONDE." Rose scoffs and rolls her eyes at Karkat as Terezi's elbow connects with his ribs.

"Well I like it," Aradia chimes in as she glares at Karkat.

"Hey let's face it, we're a bunch of hillbilly motherfuckers up in here," Dave adds. "We're even setting up a fucking moonshine distillery. All we need is a banjo and a retard to play it and we'll be all set to make some purdy-mouthed city slickers squeal like a pig. No lube, either, unless blood counts-"

John groans. Jade slaps him upside the head. "Don't be gross, Dave!"

Terezi frowns. "I don't get it. Is this another one of your Earth human references, coolkid?"

Dave rubs the back of his head as he glares at Jade. His red eyes smell like ripe cherries in the firelight. "Yeah, whatever, it doesn't matter."

"Damn right it doesn't matter, Dave! That movie was horrible and not in any of your ironic coolguy ways! Just in all the... all the really bad ways!" Jade jabs him in the ribs. He winces. "Anyway! You guys should really hear about what happened today! Dave was soooo braaaave!"

Jade regales them all with a Thrilling Tale of the Hunt that she and Dave had embarked on earlier in the day. Terezi is sure most of it is highly exaggerated – there's no way Dave tackled the injured animal by the antlers. She also finds it highly suspect that he fought off a "huge wolfy looking thing with huge teeth the size of your hand" by punching it in the nose. It's entertaining to listen to, though, and Jade's enthusiasm is infectious. It reminds her of Nepeta. She... she misses Nepeta. She'd have been happy here.

The humans, however, soon find themselves tiring. Rose and Kanaya are the first to excuse themselves, the couple walking hand in hand through the darkness to their home past the gardens. Jade and Dave follow soon after to their home nearby, Jade giggling and whispering to Dave as they go. Last to leave is John, who waits patiently for some sign of Vriska before exhaustion forces him to head back home.

With the humans gone and the fire now only smoke, it was time to begin the nightly routine. The nights were dangerous, but their gardens and the handful of livestock they'd managed to tame all needed constant protection.

 

 

It's been an hour since her patrol began and there's still no sign of Vriska. Her absence is an annoyance and their patrol routes had to be adjusted to overlap into hers. It was irritating. A twinge of hate makes Terezi click her tongue against her teeth. She was probably off sulking somewhere over an imagined slight and would be found walking sullenly back to her and John's home around sunrise. Although... as unlikely a scenario it is, it was _technically_ possible that she could be injured or attacked out of earsh-

"Hey!" The sound is directly behind her, and she instinctively spins, ducks and extends her cane. It connects with something solid; she hears a yelp, a thud of flesh hitting grass, and a familiar voice spouting expletives.

"Fucking _hell_ , Terezi, the fuck's your problem? I just needed to taaaaaaaalk to you!"

Terezi sighs and relaxes. "Vriska, you know better than to come up behind me like that. And where the hell have you been? You should have begun your patrol with the rest of us; you know we need everyone doing their part no matter how much of a stupid wriggler you feel like being on any given night."

A sharp sniff inhales a bouquet of fragrances, forming a shape in her mind: Vriska, tall and thin but rounded perfectly in all the right places, pushing herself off the ground and wiping dirt and grass off of her ragged denim. There's another feature that Terezi does not expect: her eyes are puffy and her cheeks stained with tears. _Interesting!_ Terezi simply leans on her cane with one hand, lantern aloft in the other, waiting for Vriska to say her piece.

Vriska sniffs sharply and wetly, wiping her nose with a dirty denim sleeve. "Whatever." Her voice sounds like it's on the verge of breaking as she continues. "I just... I need someone to talk to and I can't talk to the humans and I can't talk to Kanaya or Aradia and Karkat and I know it's just so _stupid_ but you're the only one who I can talk to about it and I just need you right now, okay? You're the only one I can trust not to fuck everything up."

Vriska's glare is intense and steady, like she's _daring_ Terezi to talk shit or blow her off. Her fists are clenching hard in her pockets, and her posture is slouched and protective. She's intimately familiar with Vriska's mannerisms. It's what Terezi hates the most about her – she's so predictable and easy to read. This was different, however, and Terezi wasn't entirely sure how to react. There had to be a damn good reason that she would come to her _kismesis_ , of all people, to talk about a problem. This demanded investigation.

"What's going on? Why can't you talk to people who _aren't_ your kismesis about this?"

Vriska doesn't reply immediately. She stares at the ground and kicks her feet; she looks side to side and then takes a deep breath before sighing. "It's just... John's cheating on me with Rose and... I'm just... I just... what do I do? Why is this happening? How dare they? How _dare_ they! After all I fucking did for him, he has the fucking _nerve_..." The rage in her voice is tempered by pure despair; her entire body is tense as her fists clench and unclench, her fangs a hazy white in the pale light of Terezi's lantern.

A dead silence follows.

"Are... you sure?" Terezi's mind wheels; this was not the sort of problem she was expecting. She can barely process this. Of all people... she'd sooner suspect Karkat, frankly. But _John?_

Vriska's lips curl into a snarl as she reaches forward, grabs Terezi's arm and jerks her closer. " _I saw them **FUCKING!**_ " she hisses. "In the fucking _shed_ when they thought I was _sleeping!_ " Vriska's rage fades as she speaks. Despair takes its place. She slumps to the ground limply and brings her legs up to her chin, hugging them tightly as she does her best to speak through fresh tears. "I s-saw them and he was... she..." Her hiccupping sobs overwhelm her and her arms slide through her hair to cover her head.

Terezi just stands there, slack-jawed. This... This is not behavior you show your kismesis. Ever. She stands there, staring at Vriska, for almost a full minute before – with great hesitation – she lays her lantern on the ground and kneels next to Vriska, putting her arms around her and tugging her to her chest. It seems to comfort her. Terezi says nothing. The last thing Vriska needs is for her to reveal any more pity than she already has and threaten yet another quadrant's existence. No, she'll be a temporary friend, that's all.

That's all.

 

 

Terezi is six sweeps old and she is no longer a child. None of them are. They are a race of killers. They have all killed, but this time, the worst of them has gone too far. Terezi is going to kill her to save the rest of her friends. It will be difficult, both physically and emotionally, but Terezi tells herself that she simply _must_ do it even if she doesn't actually want to do so. Have a stiff jaw, keep her head held high, and keep _justice_ in mind – that was the key to success. Rage and hate are simmering in Terezi's mind, all focused on _Vriska fucking Serket_.

There were no Scourge Sisters anymore. No camaraderie, no best pupa pals for life. No. Tavros changed all that. _Vriska_ changed all of that, forever, when she made it her personal mission to torment the pathetic fudgeblood needlessly. She crippled him, tormented him, and even when Terezi brought her inches from death, she refused to back down. It was an ever-escalating battle of wills, and it would end tonight.

She has been tracking Vriska down, following clues left throughout the winding corridors and caverns of the laboratory, and she finds her sitting with Kanaya in a dim corner of the laboratory. It is not the Kanaya that Terezi knows. She is white and glowing, a jade green wound gaping through the middle of her torso. It is silent and frowning as Vriska talks quietly, something about John forgiving her, not cognizant of _justice_ listening in. Terezi sneers as the stink of something rotten and purple assaults her senses – Vriska has the gall to stay at the scene of yet another gruesome murder? Sure, it was that creep Eridan, but still: unacceptable!

Vriska's hour is at hand, and the legislacerator must make her presence known. She steps forward resolutely, tapping her cane slowly against the floor as she strides. The two stop talking and turn in unison – Kanaya is wearing Equius' sunglasses and scowling, and Vriska just looks defeated. Her glasses are missing, and Terezi smirks. She's at a grave disadvantage without her glasses. Her death will be regrettable but she cannot let a rampaging murderer go free, as much as the thought... titillates her? What? No! No no no. Justice must be done.

"Vriska Serket, you are guilty of murder. I hereby sentence you to death." Damn, that sounded a lot cooler in her head.

Vriska doesn't respond right away – just squints and leans closer before clapping her hands over her mouth and failing to suppress a laugh. Terezi scowls. "Oh my god, Terezi. Are you seeeeeeeeriously wearing that ridiculous costume? Where did you even _get_ that?"

"Shut up!" Terezi snaps. "This is a perfectly respectable legislacerator's uniform!" She omits the fact that the red and teal just smell so good together.

"It's your FLARPing costume, Terezi," Vriska counters. "I don't even know how it still fits you, it's been like a sweep and a half since you last wore it-"

"Silence!" Terezi raises her voice and jabs her cane against the tiles. Three mighty jabs – tap tap tap! "This court is in session! Vriska Serket, you are guilty of the murders of Tavros Nitram, Feferi Peixes, Nepeta Leijon, Equius Zahhak and god knows how many others! The only acceptable punishment is death."

"Fuck off, Pyrope," Vriska sighs miserably. "Tavros attacked me first. It was self defense." Terezi sniffs. Strange – she can typically tell when Vriska is lying by the sickly under-scent of deceit. That's not present... but maybe Vriska really believes her lies? Interesting.

Terezi snorts derisively. "And what about Feferi? Was that self-defense as well? Or maybe Equius and Nepeta – were they self defense? And you even took trophies and gave them to... I guess that's Kanaya. To Kanaya! And I don't even want to know what you did to Eridan."

"Yes, I am Kanaya." Her voice is steely, yet strangely alluring. She smirks slightly, showing the tips of her fangs. "And while I am now apparently a rainbow drinker of legend, I can assure you that I am quite aware of the situation and in complete control of my mental faculties. Vriska did not kill Eridan, and I have reason to believe she did not kill Nepeta or Equius either, though I was not aware of their deaths. I believe Gamzee killed them. He was wearing their characteristic articles of clothing, his face was scratched and he had blood on his club the same color as Nepeta's."

Terezi is skeptical, to say the least. Still, there was something about those murders that didn't quite add up with her perfectly reasonable "Vriska Did It" hypothesis. She'll grudgingly accept the explanation until Vriska confesses out of sheer guilt. "If Vriska didn't kill Eridan, who did? And don't say it was poor, sweet Gamzee."

"No." Kanaya's smile is thin and dangerous. "I killed him. I tore him in half with a chainsaw and I enjoyed the taste of his blood." She removes the shades and glares squarely at Terezi, sending a chill down her spine. There is something unspeakably dangerous about Kanaya, now. "I did this because he murdered Feferi, he murdered me and he destroyed the matriorb. He destroyed the entire future of the troll species. He destroyed all hope we had of building anew. And the worst part is that he did all of this so he could betray us all and try to join the demon." Kanaya frowns and looks away again. "If I had known what Gamzee had done, I would have killed him as well, you can be sure of that. As it is, I only kicked him off this ledge." Her words smell like truth. Terezi decides to believe them.

Terezi is silent for a moment. This was dire news. "So justice has been done, then," she murmurs, tapping Eridan's lower half with her cane. "Excellent! Yet justice still cries out for more – justice must be done for the slaying of our dear friend Tavros. Any last words, Ser-"

Vriska sneers and is on her feet in a flash. "Did you not fucking heeeeeeeear me, Pyrope? He attacked meeeeeeee first! He ran at me with his fucking lance and tried to run me through! I gave him a quick death, _more than he ever gave me! HE LEFT ME TO DIE SLOWLY! HE WOULDN'T KILL ME WHEN I NEEDED HIM TO, HE WOULDN'T EVEN KISS ME WHEN I WANTED HIM TO!_ " Kanaya winces at her words, ever so slightly." ** _HE DESERVED IT!_** I tried to give him so much and he just didn't care!" Terezi can practically feel the rage emanating from the troll ( _a goddess_ ) currently striding towards her, fists clenched, and it's... it's... _exciting_.

Her heart is thumping in her chest and her breath is shallow and ragged. This was... this was something _new_ , and her hatred and loathing wells up in her chest as she sees Vriska in a new light. Something dangerous and deadly; a cunning predator whose presence thrills Terezi in ways she never imagined. Vriska deserves death for all the crimes she's committed, yet... Vriska is closer now and Terezi is striding towards her as Kanaya stands and watches. Terezi's arm cranks back as Vriska gets within range and then her fist flies forward and connects with bone-jarring force, catching her by surprise.

A spray of blue fills Terezi's nose and splatters her face with that beautiful blueberry bubblegum aroma, and even as Vriska is yelling in pain and clutching her damaged nose she's being knocked off her feet by Terezi's whirling cane as it impacts her ankles. She hits the floor hard and yelps before coughing as her own blood drips down her throat. An instant later and Terezi is atop her, black lips pushing eagerly against those of the girl beneath. She surprises _herself_ , not to mention Vriska and Kanaya – but Vriska is returning it in seconds, her hands grasping Terezi's waist and pulling her closer.

Vriska's aroma is so different from Karkat's, and yet so similar – that smoky metallic fragrance is there, but behind it is a watery cerulean. It smells like blueberry bubblegum, but it tastes like copper and bittersweet fruit with a faint undertone of salt. It is deliciously _Vriska_ and Terezi lets herself savor every moment of that first kiss of hate, as sloppy and spontaneous as it is. Vriska's fangs knock against Terezi's twin rows of sharp, jagged teeth, nicking each other’s lips as they mash together.

Her head is throbbing and it feels like bugs are crawling in her stomach, a mix of disgust and desperate _want_ , as her tongue pushes eagerly against Vriska's blood-stained lips and fangs. Vriska's own does the same, their breath mingling as they pant for air. Vriska's hands grope haphazardly at whatever part of her they can reach, whether skin or fabric, her claws leaving scratches on Terezi's waist and hips that slowly ooze teal.

She feels Vriska's mind pawing relentlessly at her own, almost like she's trying and failing to get in and pull strings. Terezi grins into the kiss, savoring that apparent frustration, her hands sliding into Vriska's orange hood and running through the soft black hair within.

It takes her a moment to realize that Vriska isn't trying to _get into_ her mind... she's _caressing it_.

She shudders in a mix of revulsion and utter delight.

The only thing keeping Terezi from going further, from shoving a hand down Vriska's pants or shoving Vriska's down her own and shutting her thighs around it, is the fact that Kanaya Maryam is picking her up by the collar and dragging her away like a kitten. Terezi growls in frustration. "I hate you," she says breathlessly to a dazed and bleeding Vriska.

"I... yeah!" Vriska is grinning like an idiot. "Hahahahahahahaha! I hate you too! Wow!"

"I just... I just hate you so much."

"I knoooooooow!" Vriska laughs dizzily, a shaky hand reaching up to wipe the blood from her mouth. It smears over her sleeve and leaves a blue streak across her face even as more drips from her broken nose.

"If you two are finished, I'd like to remind you that we are trapped in the Veil with a destroyed matriorb and a potentially murderous highblood," Kanaya snaps irritably. "While I'm certainly happy that you two have found true black romance, _now is not the fucking time!_ " Neither responds. They stare at each other, Terezi admiring the bouquet of scents that make up Vriska and marveling at just how much she loathes the grinning, orange-clothed troll whose ( _delicious blueberry bubblegum_ ) blood continues to leak copiously onto her face and shirt.

Terezi has fallen into the deepest, purest hate she's ever known and it is _beautiful_ beyond words.

 

 

Vriska only calms down after several minutes of Terezi holding her close as her claws stroke reassuringly through Vriska’s hair. _God knows how many animals have been stomping through the gardens while I'm sitting here cuddling my fucking kismesis. Jegus, Terezi, get your head in the game!_ Terezi waits to speak, until Vriska is just leaning against her and breathing slowly.

"I guess this is why you were banging at my door at sunset."

"Yeah," Vriska replies in a small voice. "I sat and waited until it sounded like you and Karkat were done."

Terezi frowns. That's hardly her usual behavior, either. "Thanks, I guess."

"I didn't know where else to go, and then Karkat started yelling, and..." Vriska sighs. "I just had to spend some time alone after that."

Silence follows.

"I hate you," she murmurs after awhile, hoping against hope that the pity currently eroding away at her caliginous feelings doesn't make itself known.

"I hate you too," Vriska replies hoarsely – but she's smiling, ever so slightly.

"You should tell Kanaya. I get the feeling she'd like to know, being your moirail and all."

"No! She's in on it! She was waiting nearby! And she and Rose went back home after... it happened..." Vriska trails off and shudders. A chill runs down Terezi's spine. Has Kanaya gone off the fucking deep end?

Just what in the fuck was going on here?

"We could talk to Aradia or Karkat about it."

Vriska snorts. "Yeah right, like they'd give a shit about my _feeeeeeeelings_. Karkat would just laugh and then start yelling and this whole thing was probably just some fucking setup by _Megido-_ " She spits the name. "So she could fill a fucking quadrant by breaking up someone else's." Vriska laughs bitterly, muffled by Terezi's shirt. "I think right now you're the only one who gives a fuck, Pyrope."

"Okay, that whole thing with Aradia is _absurd_ , but whatever. Dave and Jade-"

"Think John should be with Rose aaaaaaaanyway! Fucking human solidarity or some such bullshit, I don't fucking know!"

Terezi stays silent and continues to caress Vriska's head as the troll sniffles pathetically in her arms. She does her best to suppress another pang of pity, and doesn't quite succeed. _Shit, Vriska, why did you have to fuck this up, too?_ "Fuck this. We're going to talk to Kanaya."

"Don't you fucking _dare_ -" Vriska starts, but her protest turns into a gasping hiss of pain as Terezi yanks her hair back.

Terezi repeats herself. "We're going to talk to Kanaya. She's your fucking _moirail_ , Serket, and frankly, I want to find out just what in the fuck is going on, if your assumption is true. Don't fucking argue about it like a stupid wriggler, I'm not in the mood for your shit no matter who's cheating on you."

"Fuck you, Pyrope," Vriska mutters under her breath as Terezi drags her to her feet. She'll choose to ignore that little comment for the time being. Terezi picks up her lantern and holds out her arm to Vriska, only to slide it around her waist when she stands up. Her kismesis' arm slides around hers in return, pulling her close, hip against hip. There was nothing hard about Vriska's body. It was all smooth curves, a complete opposite of Karkat's. Vriska's looks are one of her few redeeming qualities, Terezi must admit.

"Time to walk, Serket. Try not to fuck this up as much as your love life."

"Fuck you."

"That comes later." Terezi spreads her shark-tooth grin at the pearly swathe of light made by the lantern.

It smells like vanilla on dark chocolate.


	3. Black

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it looks like this story just breached 1000 views. Wow! :O
> 
> So yeah, here's part 3. There'll probably be a part 4, too. You can probably glean my headcanon about blackrom affection from the text. It's not actually _hate_ per se, it's something they just call hate because they don't know what else to call it. It's not that far off, though.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it.

A pale orange moon hangs in the night sky, surrounded on all sides by an ocean of stars. The night is cloudless and the air is crisp and cool. Though the sky is bright, the two trolls walking below are mired in darkness. Terezi's lantern is the only light nearby. Its illumination is narrow and sickly pale, but it smells nice. Terezi can clearly smell Karkat and Aradia's own lanterns in the distance as they slowly make their way around the perimeters of their settlement.

 _I'll never hear the end of it if we lose even a single damn vegetable._ Terezi keeps an ear out for any suspicious noises, but so far, the only noises are the incessant chirping and croaking of nocturnal nature, their muffled footsteps and Vriska's quiet breathing. She seems to have regained some of her confidence back, at any rate; her posture is straight and her steps are lively.

Normally, this is when they'd be exchanging insults until they got too excited to keep it confined to words. Tonight, though, Terezi is more concerned with the situation at hand. Vriska had to be mistaken. There had to be a perfectly reasonable explanation, then everyone would kiss and make up, and everything would be just fine again.

Then again, this is _Vriska_. If anyone can turn this into a complete wreck, it's her.

Terezi sighs as she slowly taps her cane on the beaten-down dust with each step. _What a fucking mess. Fucking humans can't even handle a single quadrant._

The cottage, its exterior strewn with colorful weaving materials and dyes, is dark and quiet as the pair reaches the door. Terezi raises her cane and raps sharply on the wooden door, causing Vriska to grimace and mutter under her breath. A sharp pinch from Terezi's claws silences her.

The response to Terezi's knocking is a series of muffled thumps, quiet voices and shuffling feet. A bright smell and the click of the lock is Terezi's cue. "Open up, Kanaya! It's me and Vriska." She does exactly that, the door opening a crack as she peers out before it opens fully with a faint creak. Kanaya is wrapped in a simple brown robe, hugged close with one arm as the other holds the door. Her gaze flicks over Terezi dismissively before snapping to the woman next to her.

"Vriska? What's wrong?" Kanaya's expression turns from annoyance to concern as she sees Vriska's tear-swollen face. Her response is a snarl and a jerk forward before Terezi grabs her hard by the waist. Kanaya steps back in alarm, but Terezi simply restrains Vriska until she calms and adjusts her denim jacket with a sharp, angry tug.

"You're what's wrong," Vriska says quietly, shaking with barely contained rage. Wary concern replaces Kanaya’s alarm as she visibly loosens her posture. Terezi can feel Vriska's entire body tensing and her claws digging painfully into her side. She interjects before things can escalate too quickly.

"We need to talk. Rose included." Terezi pushes forward and sweeps brusquely into the cottage, clearing the way with her cane. To the left of the door is a broad bed with thick gray blankets. Terezi sniffs out a brief flash of skin as the trolls catch Rose by surprise. Rose squeaks in alarm as she yanks shut her own pale, off-white robe and stares, wide-eyed. Terezi gives her a broad grin. "Hello, Lalonde!"

"I... What?" Rose stammers before gaining some of her composure. "Terezi, would you kindly inform us as to what, precisely, is going on? Why are you and Vriska here _together_ and at this hour?"

"Oh, you know, just paying a visit-"

"I'll take care of this, Rose," Kanaya says briskly as she closes the door. "Please, Vriska, Terezi. Have a seat. I'll make tea." Terezi gladly slips away from Vriska to take a seat, crossing her legs and settling into the worn wooden chair. As Kanaya busies herself with lighting the hearth, Vriska stares down Rose as the troll clenches and unclenches her fists. Rose stands up slowly and returns Vriska's glare with a look of utter confusion and a hint of fear. Oh, _this_ is going to be _interesting_.

" _You. Both_ of you. I will _kill_ you." Vriska's voice is quiet and hissing, practically seething with anger. This isn't the kind of impotent wriggler's anger that Terezi is accustomed to seeing in Vriska. This is... something different, something altogether more dangerous. Vriska's words have the scent of truth: sparkly and clean. She grips her cane a little tighter. As much as she enjoys seeing Vriska get angry, Terezi has little interest in her committing yet another murder. Kanaya pauses with unlit match in her hand as she frowns.

"Vriska," Kanaya says quietly she places the match on the table and steps towards her. Her voice is ice cold and full of unspoken danger. Terezi shivers just a little, feeling a pang of instinctual fear run up her spine."You need to calm down."

Vriska whirls and points at Kanaya with a claw, stepping over to her moirail in three quick steps. She jabs the claw against Kanaya's chest forcefully, pushing her back ever so slightly and making the ivory-skinned troll grimace. " _FUCK YOU!_ Don't you fucking tell me to calm down! You _betrayed me_ , you unbelievable _bitch_."

"Vriska, are you going to bother explaining-" Rose pipes up, her voice annoyed and concerned. She doesn't even get to finish the sentence before Vriska turns and faces her once again, her voice rising rapidly in volume.

"YOU. _FUCKED. **JOHN!** YOU **FUCKED** MY **MATESPRIT** , LALONDE!_" Silence follows, extended and heavy, as the accusation hangs in the air between the women. Kanaya's expression turns from irritation to surprise. Rose's change of expression is far more dramatic: her violet eyes go wide and her face flushes pink as her hands fly up to cover her mouth. It begins as shock, then confusion, but quickly morphs to horror as the implications of Vriska's accusation become clear.

"John lied," she breathes quietly, the words muffled by her hands. "He _lied_. He... And you _saw_... Oh my god. Oh my god-"

"Vriska," Kanaya says quietly as her hand grips Vriska's shoulder and squeezes tightly. Her voice quavers slightly before snapping back to cold steel. "I believe there has been a... failure to communicate."

Rapid footsteps scuffle the dirt outside the cottage. A feminine voice calls out high and clear: Aradia. "Is everything all right in there?"

Rose continues to speak quietly, her hands shaking as they drop from her face to cross tightly across her chest. "You... You must have seen us. And you didn't... It... No wonder we didn't see you this evening. Oh my god, Vriska, I'm so sorry-"

"I'll _kill_ you," Vriska snarls as she lunges forward. Kanaya's other arm is around her in a flash, constricting around her neck and hugging her tightly. The backwards pull causes Vriska to jerk in Kanaya's arms and her glasses to clatter to the floor. Rose stands her ground, simply staring at Vriska before she speaks once more, louder this time.

"We... We could use your assistance, Aradia." The door opens in an instant, revealing Aradia with lantern in hand. The carmine patches on her white cloak, remnants of her red hood, make Terezi grin. The two colors smell so nice together – like whipped cream and cherries.

"Getting a little crowded in here, huh, Aradia?" Terezi grins widely at her as Aradia closes the door, looking back warily between the human and the trolls.

"Yes, definitely," she says quietly with eyebrow raised. She glances at Rose. "And I couldn't help but overhear-"

"Fuck off, Megido! Nobody wants you h-rrgh!" Vriska grunts as she struggles vainly against Kanaya's iron grip. Kanaya tightens it in retaliation. Vriska claws at the arm and growls like she's gone feral. Terezi has to admit that she's rather impressed by Vriska at the moment. She had no idea she could get so _angry_.  
“Vriska Serket, if you do not calm down by your own free will, I will _force_ you to do so." Vriska just hisses and tries to hook her leg behind Kanaya's to no avail as she tugs uselessly on the glittering white arm. "Aradia," Kanaya continues calmly. "Would you please get John? He has some... explaining to do."

Aradia hesitates before nodding slowly and slipping quickly out the door, her cloak fluttering behind her. The footsteps fade rapidly.

Vriska gives up after a few more moments of struggling and goes limp in Kanaya's grasp, defeated utterly. "God damn it," she whispers, her voice cracking. Terezi waits the blueberry scent to waft into her nose from renewed tears – and is rather disappointed. There are no more tears, no more sobs, just silent defeat as Kanaya lets her grip loosen. Vriska simply lets her moirail restrain her.

Silence reigns in the cottage; the only sound is Vriska's occasional shuddering, exhausted exhale. After several moments, Rose sinks slowly down onto the bed only to suddenly jerk back to her feet. "I... I should get dressed." She stands still for a moment, as if confused, before she suddenly blinks. She looks at Terezi and Vriska and then darts behind a wooden partition and begins rummaging through what sounds like fabric.

Rose soon reemerges wearing a simple white dress ( _smells like egg whites_ ) and retakes her seat on the bed, nervously smoothing the fabric repeatedly. Her face is still flushed pink, making her smell like a fresh peach. Terezi frowns. Peaches and egg whites do _not_ go together.

The quartet sits for several minutes in oppressive silence. Voices interrupt the quietude: two male, one female; one is very loud. Terezi sighs and shakes her head. _Really, Aradia? You managed to get Karkat here, too?_

Karkat is already yelling. "ARADIA MAYBE YOU'D LIKE TO START TELLING ME EXACTLY WHY THE ACTUAL FUCK I AM THE ONLY ONE WHO'S EVEN TRYING TO DO HIS FUCKING JOB TONIGHT."

"Oh would you shut _up_ , Karkat? This is a crisis. If you keep shouting you're going to wake up Dave and Jade too and then everything's just going to get even worse."

Karkat lowers his volume, but only slightly. "DON'T TELL ME TO SHUT UP, MEGIDO! I AM THE FUCKING LEADER HERE AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU LAZY BULGELICKERS HAS A FUCKING IMPORTANT JOB TO DO. OH, AND LOOK, YOU AREN'T DOING IT! WHAT A FUCKING SURPRISE."

"Karkat, seriously, shut up. You're making this even worse than it already is."

"FUCK YOU TOO EGBERT. THIS IS PROBABLY ALL YOUR FAULT ANYWAY."

The trio is almost here if the increased volume is any indicator. She'll have to handle Karkat; this is a delicate situation and the last thing she needs is for Karkat to try to be the "leader." Terezi sniffs in Rose's direction. A hazy shape forms: Rose, her face buried in her hands, her face as red as a plump tomato. Terezi actually manages to resist the urge to laugh, though her grin is wider than ever. This is just too perfect.

Karkat slams open the door and stomps into the cottage, glaring at every person in the room. "WHAT IS THIS? A FUCKING TEA PARTY? HAS LALONDE STARTED A GOD DAMNED MIDNIGHT KNITTING CLUB? ARE YOU BROADS GOING TO - OW!" Terezi's cane hits him squarely in the shin. "THAT FUCKING HURT, REZ."

"Good." She hits him once again in the same spot. He yelps. "Shut up and sit down. Emphasis on the shut up, Karkles. Don't test me."

He complies, mostly. If you don't count the angry muttering.

Aradia enters next, one arm dragging a sloppily-dressed John Egbert behind her. He hasn't come entirely by his own free will, if the rumpled clothing and lack of shoes is any indication. Aradia just looks annoyed. She shoves John into the cottage and adjusts her cloak with a scowl. "I had to drag him," she mentions nonchalantly before leaning against a wall and crossing her arms.

Everyone turns their head to _stare_ at the human currently draped across the back of a chair. He appears utterly baffled as he adjusts his glasses and looks around the room. That puzzlement disappears almost instantly when he sees Rose's hand-covered face and Vriska's murderous glare and finally puts the pieces together.

"Oh _fuck_ ," is all he says.

Vriska is over and grabbing him in an instant. Her fingers wrap around his throat like a vice before she shoves him bodily against the wall of the cottage. The walls shake and John winces in pain as he scrabbles at the claws squeezing his neck. Terezi frowns. This is starting to seem very _caliginous_.

" ** _JOHN FUCKING EGBERT!_** " Vriska snarls as she leans in inches from his face. "How dare you. _HOW DARE YOU!_ I trusted you and you _betray_ me? You _cheat_ on me? Give me one reason I shouldn't kill y-"

" _STOP!_ "

Rose's voice rings out loud and clear as she shoots to her feet. Vriska turns to glare at her, her claws not loosening their grip on John in the slightest. Terezi, for just a moment, expects her to try to be a hero and rescue John. It seems Rose isn't quite that foolish, much to Terezi's disappointment. That would have been entertaining.

"Vriska," Rose continues. Her voice is quiet and pleading. "There has been a misunderstanding here. Please, don't... don't do something you're going to regret."

"A _misunderstanding_?" Vriska actually laughs. It's bitter, angry, and mocking, but it's a laugh. "Tell me, Lalonde, how could I possibly _misunderstand_ seeing his dick inside you?" Rose blanches before flushing bright red once again. Vriska's expression is one of demented glee. "Please, explain it to me! I'd loooooooove to know what other _interpretaaaaaaaations_ there are of him between _your fucking legs_! Did he accidentally slip on some paint? Maybe you tripped on a bag of compost in the shed and just fell on his dick! Oh my, that certainly sounds like a perfectly loooooooogical explanation, doesn't it, Lalonde!"

Everyone is now staring at Vriska. Karkat's jaw hangs open for a moment – the great leader struck speechless, at least until he manages to remember how to speak. He's still uncharacteristically quiet. "What the fuck is wrong with you people?" His gaze flicks to John. "Egbert, is she kidding? Is something that you _actually did?_ Lalonde? Did you really...?"

John just wheezes for breath as Vriska holds him against the wall.

Everyone waits for an answer.

Rose is the one to give it.

"I-I-I... I... I-I... We... John said... John said you'd agreed to it..." Her voice was quiet. "I... I wanted a baby and... and there's just no one else... we... humans need a male and a female for the... the... the _act_ and and and slee... m-mating with Dave would be... it would result in-in-in genetic mutations and d-d-degradation of our... of the gene pool and..." She inhales deeply. "I'm sorry, Vriska. I didn't... Kanaya can't... she can't give that to me, either. I'm sorry. Oh... oh my _god_ I can't believe I'm telling this to everyone."

"You really did." Karkat leans back in his chair and _boggles_. "I don't fucking believe it."

Vriska tilts her head as her cheek twitches. "Agreed to it?" She repeats quietly. Her head snaps back to John as she pulls him back and then slams him once more against the wall. Wood creaks and splinters as he coughs raggedly, clawing at her arm. " _YOU SAID I AGREED TO THIS?_ "

"Vriska. Let him go." Aradia's eyes are narrowing as a faint white glow begins to surround her. "You know I can _make_ you if you don't. Don't make it come to that." Terezi cocks an eyebrow in Aradia's direction; Karkat stares and crosses his arms as he leans back in his chair. The two matesprits give each other a look and a grin. _About damn time, Megido._

Vriska just hisses, her claws digging into the sides of John's neck to draw beads of bright crimson before she releases him and steps back. Her arms cross and she stands stock still, staring at her matesprit hatefully. He doubles over, wheezing painfully in shuddering gasps. John slumps against the wall once he straightens, staring wide-eyed at Vriska. "You weren't supposed to find out," he says, voice raspy. "Sorry Rose, I just... I knew she'd say no and I wanted you to be happy. You deserve it. You... You deserve a family. Vriska, _I love you_ but... You wouldn't understand. You'd _never_ understand. I didn't ask because it didn't matter." His lips form a thin line, not quite a frown, as his eyes narrow. He straightens his posture and stares directly at Vriska. "Even if I'd asked and you said no, I'd still have done it."

Rose just slumps to the bed and buries her face in her hands. "God damn it, John," she whispers, her voice muffled. "God _damn it._ " Terezi can smell that faint fragrance of salty human tears, like waves lapping a sandy beach. It's rather unpleasant. Kanaya steps over to sit beside her, putting her arms around the human and whispering softly.

While distracted by Rose and Kanaya, a sudden, sharp _SMACK_ startles Terezi. She turns only to smell John clutching his jaw on the floor, bright red blood dripping out of his mouth. A white lump sits on the floor in a small spray of scarlet. Is that...? _Jegus, Vriska_. Vriska stands over him, rubbing the back of her hand.

"We're _done_ , John," is all she says before she stomps out of the cottage and slams the door behind her. The home shakes with the force of the closure. John groans as he sits up and leans against the wall, wincing as he rubs his jaw.

Aradia sighs and rubs her forehead in exasperation. "I'll go talk to her." She leaves the cottage and Terezi can hear her calling after Vriska, only to have what sounds like an intense argument a moment later. They're too far away to hear anything distinct, and they seem to be moving further away. Disappointing.

"John," Rose sighs as she sniffles and rubs her nose. She looks up at John and sets her lips in a thin, tight line, as if she's exerting a lot of willpower. Her eyes are puffy and reddened. "You are fantastically fucking stupid. She'd have known the instant I started to... to _show_. If you'd asked, and she'd said no, we could have talked it over with her. But instead, you just lied to us. You lied to her. You lied to _me_. I trusted you and you just... Just leave, John. Please get out of my house."

John spits out a wad of blood and grunts as he slowly stands. He wipes blood off his lips with the back of his hand, succeeding in doing nothing but smearing it, and straightens his glasses. "Whatever. Fine. Fine! Fine." His face is tightly drawn as he steps out of the cottage and briskly walks off in the direction he came. He leaves his tooth behind.

"Talk to him," Terezi mouths at Karkat, with a jerk of her head towards the door. Karkat simply grunts and stands up to chase after Egbert. Terezi stands up to leave as well, frowning at Rose and Kanaya. She hesitates and fiddles with her cane for a moment. "I... I didn't think it was true," she admits. "Otherwise I wouldn't have..." Terezi just sighs. "Sorry." Kanaya just looks up and nods silently. She spins on her heel, grabs her lantern and leaves quickly, leaving the troll and her human to commiserate in peace and quiet.

She finds Vriska and Aradia arguing in a loud whisper a ways down the path, Vriska's claw occasionally jabbing emphatically at Aradia's chest. Aradia waggles her own claw in Vriska's face as their voices overlap, discussing something about "-wouldn't do it if it wasn't necessary -" and " - lying, backstabbing prick -" before Terezi interjects cheerfully.

"Hey, Serket! Talk about fucking up your love life, huh! Hahahaha! That was pretty great! So how many quadrants do you think you lost tonight, one or two?" Terezi plants her cane in the dirt with one hand and grins wickedly. The pair pause their argument immediately. Aradia glances over her shoulder at the new arrival before cocking an eyebrow and backing away. Terezi waves her off flippantly, and Aradia complies after shooting Terezi a warning glance. There's no need; Terezi knows exactly what she's doing. Vriska needs to be distracted for awhile. Needs to channel that hate and anger in a more productive direction. A more appropriate direction. A more _fun_ direction. Otherwise, she's just going to start keeping it bottled up like she always does, and that isn't good for anyone.

She cocks her head at her kismesis. "Nothing to say to that, Serket? Are you going to just stand there and glare at me all night?"

 _No, of course not._ Vriska stomps over in a flash and grabs Terezi by her often-mended collar, pulling her face inches from her own. Yes, this was good. Terezi flicks the switch on her lantern and lets it drop to the ground, darkened, next to her cane. "Fuck you," Vriska hisses quietly.

Mission nearly accomplished. One more tease. "Definitely, _sweetheart_."

They both lean forward at the same time, their lips meeting with a brief flutter before they both dive into it wholeheartedly. Vriska's hands leave Terezi's collar to instead reach down and grab her hindquarters tightly through her thin trousers, pulling the slightly shorter troll in close. Terezi's hands grab Vriska's cheeks and pull her deeper into the kiss.

A wave of wonderful revulsion passes through Terezi as their fangs click and knock together, nicking each other’s lips and causing teal and cerulean to blend in a swirl of deliciously erotic tastes. Not sweet or fruity, but instead something bitter and tangy and savory, indescribable and uniquely pleasant slash unpleasant. The stinging pain is a perfect catalyst to spur the growing caliginous desire in her body; her mind whirls as she feels that familiar heat between her thighs. It takes a few moments for Terezi to pull away and gasp "Not here." She smells the shifting light and shadow as Vriska glances around before grinning and grabbing Terezi's shirt with one hand.

She's pulled roughly over and off the path to a group of boxes stacked next to a roughly constructed lean-to, with ample space behind the structure hidden from the path. Vriska shoves her roughly against the back of the lean-to and presses her lips against Terezi's once again. Their panting breath mingles hotly as dark gray tongues lick and tease along dusky lips; Terezi grabs Vriska's jacket and shoves it off her arms. Vriska returns the favor with a different garment: her hands slide down to deftly unbutton Terezi's trousers.

Vriska's lips leave her kismesis' to press kisses and blood-drawing nips to her neck. Terezi shudders as her hands entwine themselves in Vriska's long black hair, tugging sharply whenever Vriska's kisses threaten to stop. Her back presses against the wood as she pushes her hips forward, making it easier for her partner to hook her thumbs into the waistline of her trousers and the undergarment beneath and yank it down. The plain cream-colored panties are stained teal; their dampness causes them to stick, briefly, before they lose their grip and puddle around her ankles. Those hands place themselves on Terezi's bared hips and dig their claws in, drawing beads of blood that drip slowly down her skin. Terezi shivers as the cool night air washes over her exposed skin, a pleasant tingling accompanying the smarting pain of the claws.

Terezi steps out of the garments awkwardly. Her shoes catch on the tangled fabric. She kicks them out of the way as her hands move down to return the favor. She fiddles with the button, growling with frustration, before she finally manages to undo it; the zipper is far more cooperative, and soon Terezi's hands are grabbing the jeans along with what's underneath. A jerk of her hands and they're puddling around Vriska's ankles as well. A deliciously familiar fragrance, blueberry with a metallic under-scent and laden with heady pheromones, fills Terezi's nose.

"Interesting!" Terezi gasps as Vriska's tongue glides slowly across broken skin. "Didn't know losing a quadrant made you so _hot_ , Serket." Vriska growls dangerously as she gives Terezi's jaw line a sharp nip. Terezi releases a breathy laugh, her hands coming back up to grab Vriska's hair. She leans forward just enough – aha! Her leg slides up between Vriska's thighs and presses against the damp heat that hides there, causing her kismesis to press a muffled gasp against her neck.

"I seriously fucking hate you," Vriska breathes as her mouth glides back up from the oozing wounds on Terezi's neck. Vriska returns the favor: her hips slide forward to push her thigh between Terezi's legs. Terezi grits her teeth and moans lowly as she pushes her hips against the intruding limb. The darkness prevents her from distinguishing useful images; Terezi instead navigates by touch, her hands sliding down from Vriska's hair to drift along her shoulders and back. Terezi soon finds her goal – claws dig into the bottom of Vriska's shirt and yank upward, causing Vriska to splutter as it covers her face and forces her arms upward.

"Fuck –! Pyrope!" Vriska grunts in frustration as her partner removes the final garment and Terezi's hands are soon back to explore her torso. They soon encounter something – or rather, a distinct lack of something - that makes Terezi laugh quietly.

"Forget something, Serket?" Her hands slip around to Vriska's front to grasp the two perfect curves that top her chest, squeezing the dark gray nubs that cap them between her middle fingers. Her kismesis groans and presses into the touch, her lips pressing repeatedly against Terezi's face. Terezi's head spins at the sensations and emotions, a heady mix of tingling pleasure and aching need and utter revulsion and loathing and lust.

"Shut the fuck up," Vriska whispers. Her own hands are already at the hem of Terezi's loose-fitting gray shirt and pulling it up and over Terezi's head, forcibly removing Terezi's hands from her breasts and knocking her carmine lenses off her head in the process. Terezi just snickers and pulls her thigh away. She instantly replaces it with her right hand as her left curls around Vriska's shoulders. Their lips mesh once again as Terezi's finger slips easily inside her partner. She relishes that sudden gasp and that jerk of the hips; her tongue draws across Vriska's dusky lips as she feels her kismesis practically melt in her grasp.

A second finger joins the first and Vriska moans softly into the kiss as Terezi hugs her tightly. She doesn't need to smell for this; pure touch and sound and taste is sensation enough. Terezi amuses herself with movements of those fingers, the tips slowly exploring Vriska's silky insides as they flutter, grasp, and tug at the twin intruders. A twist of the wrist and her palm is rocking gently against that particular and sensitive nub atop Vriska's lips. It makes her shudder and gasp, and Terezi grins at the control she currently has over Vriska.

Her thigh pushes against Terezi's own counterpart, and Terezi's legs clamp down on it as her hips rock back and forth gently. It's hardly the best sensation in the world, but the grinding friction keeps Terezi's head buzzing pleasantly with desire. She breaks the kiss so she can pant for air, her head leaning back against the wood. Vriska does the same, leaning against Terezi as she gasps hoarsely. Her hands slide up from Terezi's hips to undo the knot in the strip of fabric that wraps around her chest, soon releasing her modest bosom to the night air. Vriska's hands cup them and squeeze, making Terezi giggle happily.

Vriska's hips rock slowly in rhythm with Terezi's sliding, twisting digits, her insides squeezing and fluttering constantly as she moans softly against Terezi's neck. She hates ( _adores_ ) the feeling of Vriska's smooth, warm skin pressing against hers, those curves pleasant to every applicable sense, that voice whimpering in desire and every part of her under Terezi's control. She could stop right now, leave Vriska hanging, toke that hate until it was seething and black and perfect. Let it simmer for a week before catching her alone one night and teasing her until she begged – but no. Not tonight.

Vriska's getting close. So easy to read, so easy to predict. A grin twists Terezi's lips as her fingers speed up ever so slightly, her wrist twisting to rub constantly against that sensitive nub – just a few more moments – almost – _almost_ – there! Vriska, right on cue, leans fully against Terezi and moans lewdly, her hips trembling and bucking as a gush of cerulean fluid soaks Terezi's hand. Her insides squeeze spasmodically around those intruding fingers as her muscles tense tightly and shake from the exertion. "Oh fuck, oh _fuuuuuuuuck_ ," Vriska moans into Terezi's hair, her hips bucking occasionally as Terezi keeps her fingers moving to draw her climax out as long as she can. Vriska's sweat smears against Terezi's skin as she pants for air, dazed and dizzy, kissing profusely and aimlessly.

Terezi's digits vacate her kismesis; she brings her hand up to her mouth and slowly draws her tongue along her fingers to enjoy that unique bitter-savory flavor. So perfectly revolting. Terezi cocks her head and grins at Vriska, her own breath slow and raspy. "Well?" she coos as her tongue licks slowly across her bleeding lips.

Vriska grins nastily, only the curves and peaks of her face and horns visible as faint, pale outlines in the darkness that surrounds the pair. "Well what?"

"You know exactly what, Serket."

"Maybe I'm done."

"Like hell you are!"

A laugh, unusually sincere. "Fuck off, Pyrope. No need to get your horns in a knot. I'm feeling generous tonight."

Terezi's lips curl into a satisfied smirk. "Good." She releases Vriska’s thigh from the grip of her own. She leans against the wooden wall and waits for Vriska's fingers to begin. And waits. And wa- _what the fuck?_ A new sensation surprises her. Vriska's lips are _kissing_ her _thighs_ – this was new. "V-Vriska, what are you..."

"Shut up," she murmurs. Her voice is subdued and muffled. "I'm doing you a favor. Just lean back and enjoy, I'm not in the mood to explain myself to you."

Terezi works her jaw, searching for some quip in response, but those kisses slowly fluttering against the trembling skin of her inner thighs are just so distracting. She breathes deeply and just leans back against the wall, her hands drifting down to curl into Vriska's silky black hair. Her heart thumps nervously in her chest as those kisses come closer and closer; her thighs twitch as Vriska's breath washes hotly over freshly kissed skin.

It's _maddening_. It feels like it's taking forever for something to happen, and Terezi can only clench her jaw and suppress the desire to beg. No, she'll never do that. She can be patient. She can wait. She can – she can gasp in shock as Vriska's breath tickles at the juncture of her thighs, followed – unbelievably – by a long, slow stroke of her tongue. A rolling wave of sensation comes with it. "Oh fuck," Terezi breathes. Vriska's response is a faint snicker before she does it a second time, pressing closer until her lips ghost along Terezi's heated skin. The tips of her fangs prickle, making Terezi's breath hitch in a mix of alarm and anticipation.

The sensations are overwhelming and new as Vriska experiments. She alternates kisses and slow licks, slowly exploring every teal-dampened inch of Terezi's femininity. It feels like an eternity of teasing, mixed with occasional jolts of pleasure as the tip of Vriska's tongue flicks over the sensitive clitoral bead atop the slick lips. Her fangs sometimes poke when she kisses and once in awhile puncture or scratch, sending a twinge of pain up Terezi's spine that makes her whimper. It takes several minutes before Vriska begins to show some aggression; her lips push firmly against Terezi and her tongue begins practically lapping, occasionally pushing past the exterior to delve tentatively inside. Her hips quiver and jerk as she gasps loudly, her breath growing shallow and ragged. _Oh my fucking god._ The sheer _sensation_ is overwhelming – her tongue is moist and agile, thick and strong, and Vriska's hot breath washing over it with each exhale makes it even more exciting.

The intense knot of _need_ in Terezi's groin is growing faster and faster, tightening and tangling, and Terezi knows that she isn't going to resist it much longer. Her hands wrap tightly around the base of Vriska's horns, eliciting an annoyed grunt from the troll between her legs. Vriska's own hands grip Terezi's hips tightly, her claws digging into the skin and drawing more droplets of teal from the broken flesh.

"Fuck, Vriska, I'm... oh _fuck_..." Terezi's voice trembles even more than her body. Her thighs tense and shake. Vriska just grunts in response, the tip of her tongue flicking playfully at that sensitive gray bump. Terezi clenches her teeth and pants for breath between overlapping moans as she slowly creeps closer and closer to – to – _oh my GOD_. Her head buzzes with the pleasure radiating from between her legs. Her insides spasm as waves of disgust and joy roll over her brain and a haze envelops her senses. She's vaguely aware of Vriska pulling away suddenly and cursing, gagging and spitting. Terezi doesn't particularly care, beyond a delirious glee at her kismesis' apparent disgust.

It feels like it lasts longer than it actually does. She's left trembling and sweating, the cool night making her skin prickle as she relaxes against the wall, basking in that warm afterglow. The dim light of the moon gives her hints of color and shape – Vriska, kneeling in front of her, her face smeared with teal as she paws at her mouth and spits. "Fucking hell Terezi I fucking hate you-" She can't help it: she covers her mouth to muffle her laughter. Vriska just looks up and gives her a look of complete revulsion. "This is beyoooooooond gross! It got in my _mouth_. In my _MOUTH!_ And some of it wasn't even _yours_!" She grunts with one last spit before reaching over to gather her clothes.

Terezi ignores the complaint. She's still a little dazed. "I um. Uh. You, uh. Oh! You should find someplace to stay, Serket. Until things calm down, I mean. Maybe Aradia will let you stay with her since she's apparently your auspistice now." Terezi laughs again as she straightens. Vriska just glares.

"Whatever," she mutters angrily as she tugs her panties and jeans back on. Still so furious, but hopefully now it's contained. She can calm down by herself now. Once Vriska's lower half is covered, she gets to her feet unsteadily and wipes dust off her jeans, her glare never abating. Terezi sniffs and smiles at the image that appears – faint outlines of Vriska's perfect curves, a faint hint of dark gray atop her chest. Gorgeous, she has to admit, even if she does reek of dirt, sweat and sex. Vriska tugs on her shirt and jacket, both filthy with dust. Vriska leans in to kiss the still-naked troll, but Terezi intercepts it with a lick across her face, clearing it of some of the smeared teal. Vriska jerks back and scowls as she wipes her face with a sleeve. "You're _disgusting_ , Pyrope."

Terezi just grins, the moonlight glinting off those sharp mother-of-pearl wedges. "You're the one with cum on your face, Vriska." Vriska just splutters angrily and wipes furiously at her face with a sleeve before she turns to leave. As Vriska stomps away, Terezi simply leans back against the wood behind her and sighs, glad that the pity she felt earlier had disappeared for the moment. She pokes at the tender wounds on her neck and hips. She clicks her tongue. Karkat's going to be annoyed when he sees them.

She picks up her clothes off the dirt and begins the process of redressing, not bothering to clean the fluids off her thighs. Not like it matters. She'll be able to wash herself off at dawn. There were other things to attend to. For instance, the job she should have been doing in the first place. She steps back onto the path, picks up her cane and lantern and gets her bearings.

There are vegetables to protect.


	4. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much to say here. This is the final part of this particular fic. I may write more in this universe, sans smut.
> 
> I suppose it's kind of fitting that MSPA updated with the awesome [S] Seer: Ascend right as I finished this.

The pain is starting to catch up with him. John's head aches, his jaw throbs, his entire tongue tastes like it's coated in blood and his back and shoulders feel like one huge bruise. He tongues at the empty spot where a tooth once was, a premolar on his upper jaw. He winces at the touch. He's had some bad days in the past but this one really takes the cake. Lost his tooth, lost his dignity, lost his friends' trust, lost the love of his life. Those last two are the worst of the lot by far.

He's trying to walk quickly, but he just can't keep this pace up. He's already winded. John braces himself against a fence and wheezes for breath, silently praying for his heart to just slow down so he could think straight. His head is ringing, everything hurts, and he's just so _tired._

Through the haze, he hears brisk footsteps and a familiar voice call his name. He groans inwardly and manages to turn himself to lean with his hips against the fence. A bright light greets him, blinding him. He manages to bring his arm up to shield his eyes before the beam of light is pulled away and he hears a muttered curse.

"Wha d'you wan Karkat?" John manages to mumble in response.

Karkat pauses as he reaches John and actually gives him a look of concern. He leans in closer and presses a finger against the rapidly swelling cheek. John grunts in pain. "Fuck, Egbert. She really did a number on you." He sounds impressed.

John tries to laugh. It comes out sounding more like a strangled series of coughs. "Deserved it." He wobbles as he tries to stand up. "Dizzy."

Karkat hoists him up, slings John's arm around his shoulders and starts pulling him along. "Come on. We need to get your stupid ass back to your hive." John's legs cooperate but only when he concentrates. They feel like they're made of stone.

"House." John grins.

"Shut up, Egbert."

 

Karkat sometimes asks him questions as they work their way back to John's house. He answers as best he can, although most of his answers are dismissive due to either embarrassment or pain. There’s no point in talking right now. It won't help; nothing will. Everything's fucked.

 

John slumps on the bed in the dark cottage as Karkat rummages around for medical supplies. Karkat is talking, but John isn't really listening. He’s rambling about auspistices. He doesn't care. He just wants to sleep. John dwells on the fantasy of a nightmare. Maybe this was all one long dream that will end soon and he'll get to wake up just before dawn just as Vriska is walking in and she'll kiss him and he'll say "I love you!" and she'll say "I know!" and everything will be perfect. Maybe he'll wake up and everything will be like it was three months ago before Rose approached him and _asked_.

 

The sky was clear and the day was hazy with heat and light. It was a couple hours past noon and John would be glad when the sun finally started to sink into the horizon. He'd get to spend a couple hours with Vriska - maybe alone! The thought made him grin.

A polite, feminine throat-clearing behind him caught his attention from weeding and thinking. He turned and there was Rose, in her rough work gloves, broad hat and sundress, pale skin reddened from the sun.

She looked so uncomfortable and John couldn't believe his ears when she actually stammered! Rose, the calm queen of books and psychology, was stammering - at him! He'd actually laughed, though he'd stopped when she glared at him as if she was going to kill him. He knew that face well enough not to push it.

She'd danced around the question, asking him if he remembered his Dad, what he was like, all stuff he knew she already knew. It took twenty minutes before she actually came out and asked, "John, do you want to be a father?"

He knew what she meant. He hadn't known what to say, so he said the first thing that came to mind. "Yeah, I guess?"

Rose looked back at Kanaya, glittering in the sun. Kanaya nodded. Rose winced.

"Talk to Vriska about it, okay? About, ah... You and I, that is," she said. "If she's okay with it, then we can..."

"Yeah..." John murmured. He stared at his feet. God, this was awkward.

"I... Look, I'll... I'll talk to you later, John." She backed away slowly before scurrying over to rejoin Kanaya. John looked down at the small spade in his hand, covered in dirt and bits of weeds. He thought about how he'd even start to explain this. He couldn't even think about it, any of it.

 _Vriska won't understand._

He never spoke to her about it.

Neither did Rose or Kanaya.

The next day, he told the Lie.

Rose nodded and then just stared at him in the mid-morning sun. He did the same.

"Okay," was all she said as she took his hand. "Follow me."

He did.

Jade and Dave never saw them. They were busy with weeds in the pumpkin patch.

She must have known what he was feeling: that dread slowly wrapping around his heart. Maybe she felt the same way. She looked at him with pure sympathy. "It should be over quickly," she said coolly as she disrobed in the hot, musty darkness of the shed. He knew it was just a facade.

God, he hoped she was right.

"Close your eyes," she whispered as she wrapped a hand around his half-raised phallus. He closed them and desperately thought of Vriska as she guided him inside of her. It helped a little, but nothing felt the same. At least he was able to finish, even if Rose was crying silently at the end.

John just felt numb and filthy. They never said anything to each other as they dressed.

He left first and headed straight home. Rose left a few minutes later. In the distance, he saw Kanaya comfort her.

John and Rose didn't look at each other for a week.

The next time was only a little easier.

 

Karkat brings over a cold compress and presses it roughly against John's cheek. He winces as the throbbing ache in his jaw increases at the contact, but the chill soon helps numb the pain. It's a bit of a relief, at least. It helps him sleep, even as Karkat slips out the door.

 

He dreams about his dad.

He's just as John remembers him: tall, smiling and genteel in his spotless hat and suit. He puffs his pipe and John can smell the acrid smoke. It smells like home. He _is_ home: a fire burns in the fireplace and clowns – _harlequins_ – decorate the walls. The sight of them is strangely comforting.

Dad stands in front of the fireplace with the firelight turning his pale gray suit a dirty, flickering orange. They've been talking about something important but John can't remember what it is.

"Son." His dad's voice is stern but friendly as he removes the pipe from his lips. His voice contains love and authority in equal measure. "Sometimes a man must make an important decision. Sometimes, we have to make it without time to think about it. Sometimes, the decision we make seems like the wrong one at the time. Sometimes it _is_ the wrong one. But each decision we make will open up a new opportunity. Our mistakes are just as valuable as what we do right." Dad smiles and John smiles too. Everything's going to be okay. Everything always turns out okay, doesn't it?

 _Shift._

John is in a dark laboratory, full of strange machinery that makes strange noises: whirring, beeping, booping and even honking for some inexplicable reason. Bubbles pop in massive glass vats that house... _things_ that he can't quite make out in the murk. A beautiful pony neighs. John ignores it. He rode that pony already, a little bit, and it was _awesome_. Besides, he just got this rad lab suit and he and Doctor Meowgon Spengler are busy with a sweet machine that has all these buttons and screens.

A reticule on the screen is locked over his father. A scene plays out: his father meets a beautiful lady in front of a store, which is then destroyed by a meteor. He goes back – and when he returns, the lady is gone, only a pink scarf left in her wake. He has lost one love but gained another – in the crater is infant John. A mother lost; a love gone but not forgotten; a son gained.

He doesn't really get it yet. He won't get it for years.

John hits the button.

 _Shift_.

This is terrible. This is... This is not... He never... _Dad_.

Absolute rage, rage beyond comprehension, surges through John as he draws the newly obtained war hammer. Rose is there with him, glowing darkly with unfathomable power. He feels her presence like an itch at the back of his mind, as if someone is staring at him in a dark room. The killer, the black demon with the face of a dog, is in front of him and every ounce of John's being screams for revenge. That... _thing_... will die today or he'll die trying.

Dad is dead. The lady he loved, Rose's mother, is dead. Their children remain.

The demon snarls and crackles with power. John is not afraid.

 _Shift._

Vriska is sitting _right next_ to him, so close he can feel her body heat. His heart is racing and his mouth is dry and oh god she's scooting closer. She presses herself against his side and John can't help but stare at her. She tilts towards him, shifting herself on the oil-stained fabric of his couch. He's not really paying attention to what his hands are doing but at the moment they're reaching out and touching her tentatively. Touch, withdraw, reach back in, and slide around her middle.

He can hear her breath catch as he touches her, can see her eyes widen and then narrow as she grins. Her silky orange suit almost glitters in the dim light, and her wings flutter gracefully as she leans in even more, her breath drifting across his lips as their noses nearly touch. Her breath smells kind of gross. Not like really gross, just a little gross, like meat that's just starting to go bad but hasn't really started to rot yet.

"John," she whispers and it makes him shiver. Her voice has a dangerous hissing quality to it that sounds kind of like a... like a _snake_ or something except not really. It's... kind of sexy, John admits to himself with a bit of a thrill.

He pulls her ever so slightly by the waist and she leans forward just enough and then their lips are touching. They're surprisingly dry but also really warm and soft. They're moving a little against his own and after a few seconds he figures out he should probably do the same thing. He starts to move his lips and then hers are opening and oh my god is that her tongue _oh my god it is_. It licks across his lips and he hears her make a muffled giggle. It's not a sound he expects to hear from Vriska.

Now her arms are sliding around his shoulders, she’s pressing more insistently into the kiss and her tongue probes with abandon. He opens his own lips and tentatively sticks the tip of his tongue out – and they touch, and now he can _taste_ her. She tastes a lot better than she smells, honestly. He rather likes it. No, he _definitely_ likes it but _OW!_

John's tongue pushes a little too far to the side and he tastes blood almost before the pain starts. He pulls back and claps his hand over his mouth as Vriska jerks back in shock. She glares at him as if he's just slapped her across the face before she reaches a hand up to her mouth. She pulls her finger away, the end smeared with a small streak of red, and looks confused. Then she looks absolutely mortified. Vriska is trying to pull away from him but he reaches his free hand out to grasp hers and removes his other from his lips so he can give her what he hopes is a reassuring smile.

"It's okay, it's okay, that was my fault! I just, uh... I didn't know your teeth were so _sharp_."

She's still blushing blue even as she flips her hair and smirks at him, her moment of embarrassment forgotten. "It's okaaaaaaaay, John." She gives him a grin, exposing her fangs, one of them marred by a slight red stain. "You just need more praaaactice." She tilts her head at him and lowers her eyelids in what John hopes is some troll form of bedroom eyes.

She leans in for more and John doesn't resist. Before she kisses him, he hears her whisper something about "better than Tavros."

She kisses him again but

everything _hurts_ now why does everything _hurt_

John wakes up to pain. He can't exactly feel his face so much as he just feels pain in a place that he knows probably used to be his face at some distant point in time. Dim, gray sunlight filters in through the window. He sighs and sits up, eliciting even more pain from his shoulders and back.

He smiles at the familiar shape sitting in the chair across from the foot of the bed before he remembers. His smile fades and his shoulders slump as he slowly sinks back into the soft comfort of the mattress. "Hi Vriska," he croaks.

She doesn't respond immediately. "I promised Aradia that I wouldn't hurt you anymore." More silence, though he can hear her shift in the chair uncomfortably. "I don't... really want to right now anyway. I was just going to get some clothes and then leave, but..." Her voice betrays her exhaustion.

"I'm sorry."

"I thought you loved me, John."

"I do."

Vriska snorts and then sniffs wetly. "Funny way of fucking showing it, Egbert. You said I was the only one you loved. Guess that was just a _prank_ , huh?"

John grimaces and sits up again, staring flatly at his matesprit. "It's not like that at all. It's just..." He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. "I don't even know how to begin explaining it to you."

Vriska glares at him darkly, her arms crossed beneath her chest and her fingers drumming on denim. "How long have you loved Rose?"

John blinks and looks at her quizzically. "How... what? Vriska, I don't _love_ Rose, she's just my friend."

She sneers. "Bullshit."

"I'm serious! She's just a friend! When she and I were... It just wasn't like that! That wasn't the reason!" Maybe it's the pain, but John is actually getting annoyed. "Fucking hell, Vriska, do you think it was easy for me to do that? Do you think it was easy for _her_? She actually _cried_ afterward the first time we did it, Vriska. She _cried_. I almost did too. I had to think of _you_ just to go through with it. It felt like we were ruining everything. Maybe we were, but we just..."

"Bullshit," she says, though far more subdued. She gives him a look as if he just said the sky was made of raisins. "I mean, it doesn't... it doesn't work that way... I mean, you need... If you don't love or hate her, how..."

"See? You don't get it. Sometimes it's really unpleasant for humans, Vriska. It's not the same as for trolls. I have to sit in the shower until the water goes cold after she and I... I can't even explain the feeling to you. But she and I both knew that we had to do it." He clenches his fists so hard they shake. "She'd... She insisted on... Certain ways... So we wouldn't have to see each other’s faces. So we could try to pretend... Vriska, I just..." He slumps again, his energy draining. "I mean... Vriska, if it was that hard for me and Rose how could I possibly have told you? How could you even begin to understand why we'd do it? It's just... Fuck, I... I don't even know how she did it. How could she possibly pretend...?” Words finally fail him.

He just watches Vriska for a moment as she sits and stares at him in silence, emotions flickering across her face.

"John." Her voice is quiet. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

He blinks. What? He asks. "What?"

She glares at him as her lips twitch. Her voice is the same volume but seems significantly more dangerous. "Do. You think. That I. Am stupid. It's a simple fucking question, John."

"No-"

"Then don't treat me like I'm stupid!" she snaps. John winces. "I can't fucking understand something you refuse to explain, idiot! So shut up and start explaining!"

John almost laughs. Almost. He's not quite sure why. He catches himself and inhales slowly and deeply. "Okay." John needs to be careful here. "You know about my... guardian," he begins.

"Yeah."

"Rose and I..." He sighs. His jaw _really_ hurt. "We want what you and Kanaya can't give us. Even if we had ectobiology equipment, it still wouldn't work. We're different species. We just... _You and I_ can't be parents, Vriska, and I want to be a father. Rose wants to be a mother. We... We don't have any other options. I mean, trolls just don't have... You don't really get it. I don't think even Kanaya really got it, she just said yes to make Rose happy. I couldn't ask you to do that. Even if I had, and you said no... It's something I have to do. It's someone I have to be. My Dad said that one day I'd be a man. That being a man means being a leader, a teacher, an example! It means... It means I have to do this, Vriska. It's... I'm sorry."

She's silent and staring. The room is getting gradually brighter as the sun continues to rise and John is starting to see past the shadows currently darkening her face. She looks as bad as he feels.

"That's not fair, John." He barely hears her speak. "It's not fucking fair. We don't... We don't have a future, John. Me and Terezi and Karkat and Kanaya and Aradia. We're the last. When we die, we're all gone. Maybe Kanaya won't die. It won't matter. It's just..." She's visibly fighting back tears. Her breath hitches briefly as she continues. "It's just not fair. It's not fucking fair. I watched you grow up. We made you. We won. I won. I won and I got you and everything was perfect even if we were doomed because we were going to be doomed together, John. How dare you?"

John turns his head and grimaces. A tear rolls down her cheek as she continues.

"How _dare_ you? Holy fuck, what I can't _give_ you? I gave you _myself_ , John, and that was good enough for almost four sweeps! Is that not good enough for you now? Ooooooooh, big man, poor old Vriska just isn't enough for _him_!" John sighs and looks down at his hands. That hurt. "Fuck you, John! You aren't better than me! We are _equals_. You don't... You don't get to... _reproduce_... if I can't. It's not... it's not fucking _fair_. It's not how this is supposed to work! Rose isn't better than me. She doesn't..." Vriska slumps back into the chair and sighs shakily. "She doesn't get to have parts of you that I can't have. She doesn't get to be something to you that I can't be."

He's pushing his luck but he doesn't care. "What the hell are you talking about? What, do you think Rose and I would just leave you and Kanaya out of it-?"

" _YES!_ " Her shout seems _too_ loud and even Vriska shrinks back from herself. "After all, we're just a couple of stupid trolls, right? We don't understaaaaaaaand anything about you humans. We don't understand family or love or caring or..." She stands up suddenly and slams her chair back into the table with a clatter. Vriska looks like she's about to grab John and start hitting him again but... doesn't. She jams her fists into her pockets and just paces. "I loved my lusus, John. There's something you humans don't get. We weren't close but I loved her. She was scary and dangerous but I loved her. She was a burden but I loved her. Sometimes... Sometimes I wished she wasn't my lusus but I still fucking loved her."

She stops in front of the bed and crosses her arms again. The room is brighter and he can see the stains and the dirt and the pain that cover her, dirty and broken and beautiful. "I don't talk about her for a reason, John, but it's not because I didn't love her, or couldn't love her, or whatever you humans think! _She just scared the fuck out of me!_ I had to kill just to not be alone and orphaned! I had to kill so she wouldn't eat me out of desperation!" She hisses under her breath and suddenly stomps over to the window to jerk the blinds closed. She then takes two steps to sit on the edge of the bed, arms crossed and back hunched as she stares at him in renewed darkness. "But when I was a dumb little wriggler who was scared of ghosts in the sunlight, she whispered to me and told me everything would be okay. She'd stroke me with her leg until I had calmed down enough to go to sleep. _She loved me_ , John. She protected me and taught me what it meant to be a troll, what it meant to be noble. Not like that matters now."

Her lips are quivering and another tear falls down her cheek. "I miss her every fucking day, John. I had to kill her so she wouldn't be in pain. You got to have someone else kill yours. Yours died quick. You don't even..." She just breathes, her body shuddering with each breath as she hugs her arms around herself. "You never had to beg for forgiveness after you put her in the kernel. You never... She _forgave_ me, John. The same as you did. You and her were the only people who ever loved me. When her sprite dissolved at the end of the game, I... I thought... I thought I was..." She goes silent and brings her knees up under her chin.

John sees the scared little girl, angry and alone, that he saw only brief glimpses of in the past. He's never seen Vriska this _vulnerable_. "I'm sorry," he whispers. "I didn't... I'm sorry." He reaches his hand out and simply lets it lay in front of her as she stares at it. It takes a minute but eventually she – hesitantly – reaches out and slides her hand into it, her fingers squeezing him gently. He returns the squeeze with a wan smile.

"The sun's up now," he murmurs. She just nods and wipes at her nose. "I... I'd like it if you stayed. I don't... I don't want to lose you, but... It's up to you. You don't ever have to forgive me. I don't think I'll forgive myself." He rubs his thumb across her fingers but she doesn't smile. Neither does he. She just looks up at the closed window and studies the dim light that filters through.

"Yeah," she says hoarsely, her legs slowly uncurling. "I don't really have anyone else to turn to, do I? Aradia's still pining for Sollux and Equius and I think even Terezi's starting to pity me." She laughs bitterly and squeezes his hand tighter. John winces at her words. She knows how to cut.

She uncurls herself and moves up the bed to sit beside him and settle against him gingerly. She doesn't relax and John doesn't impose. He simply lets her rest there against him and silently thanks every single deity he can remember. Maybe there's still hope. Silence settles over the pair as the birds begin to chirp in the newly emerging sun.

Vriska breaks it first. "I haven't forgiven you, John. Maybe I never will. But... If Rose..."

She doesn't have to finish. "I know. I don't think it'll ever be the same between Rose and me. That kind of experience doesn't really... lend itself to friendships. And if we want to repopulate our species, assuming we even can, we'll have to have a lot more than just one. God, I don't really want to think about that." He closes his eyes and grimaces. Sex with Rose just... It just felt _wrong_.

"There's an old saying," he continues as he tries to grin at her. "'It takes a village to raise a child.' Maybe it's true, maybe it's not, but... I think it would definitely take at least one troll."

Vriska almost smiles.

It's a start, at least.


End file.
